Henry IV Part II is a
history play about the last days of England's
King Henry IV and the accession to the throne
of his son, Prince Henry (sometimes referred
to as Hal or Harry), as King Henry V. The
scenes involving Sir John Falstaff and his
drinking companions are fictional.

Composition
and Publication

Henry IV Part II was
probably written in 1596 and 1597, or entirely
in 1597.It was published in 1600 in a quarto edition that
does not include the first scene of the third
act. This edition was printed by Valentine
Simmes (1585-1622) for London publishers
Andrew Wise and William Aspley. The play was
published in full in 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first
authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Sources

Shakespeare
based Henry IV Part II primarily on
accounts in The Chronicles of England,
Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed’s
Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed
(?-1580?). The first edition of the chronicles
was published in 1577 in two volumes.
Shakespeare also drew upon information in Samuel
Daniel's The First Four Books of the Civil
Wars Between the Two Houses of Lancaster and
York, published in 1595. There is a
possibility that Shakespeare based the character
Falstaff on a boastful but cowardly soldier
named Pyrgopolynices in Miles Gloriosus,
a play by the Roman writer Plautus (254-184
BC).

Background

Henry IV
Part II continues the story of Henry
IV
Part I. At the end of the latter
play, the forces of King Henry IV defeat a rebel
army at Shrewsbury, on the Welsh-English border,
in 1403 during a battle in which the king’s son,
Prince Henry (Hal), distinguishes himself by
slaying the rebels’ champion, Hotspur. Henry
IV Part II focuses on the final defeat of
the remaining rebel forces, the illness and
approaching death of King Henry, the
misadventures of the comic character Falstaff
and his companions, and the transition of Hal
from the carefree pub-crawler that he was in Henry
IV Part I to a sober-minded heir to the
throne of England.

Settings.Henry IV Part II takes
place in England after the Battle of
Shrewsbury in 1403. The locales include
London, York, Warkwarth, Westminster,
Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, and Gaultree
Forest.

Characters.Rumour: Presenter of the
play in the Induction, preceding Act I.King
Henry IV: King of England, now ill and
suffering from insomnia and a guilty conscience
for usurping the throne of Richard II. The son of the Duke of Lancaster
(John of Gaunt), Henry was the first English
king in the House of Lancaster, reigning from
1399 to 1413. Prince
Henry of Wales (Prince Hal): Son of the
king. He inherits the throne as Henry V. He gives
up his carefree, fun-loving lifestyle when royal
duties demand his full attention.Prince
John of Lancaster: Son of the king. John
violates a peace pact and slaughters a rebel army.Prince
Humphrey of Gloucester: Another son of the
king.Thomas,
Duke of Clarence:Another son of the
king. |Earls
of Warwick (Nevil) and Surrey: King's
counsellors.Earl
of Westmoreland: A leader of the king's
forces.Gower,
Harcourt, Blunt: Officers in the king's
forces.Earl
of Northumberland: A leader of the rebellion
against the king.Lady
Northumberland: Wife of Northumberland and
mother of the dead Hotspur. (See Background for
information on Hotspur.)Other
Leaders of the Rebellion Against the King: Lord
Mowbray, Lord Hastings, Lord Bardolph, Sir John
Colville, and Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York.Lady
Percy: Widow of Hotspur. (See Background for
information on Hotspur.)Travers,
Morton: Retainers of Northumberland.Lord
Chief Justice of the King's Bench: Judge
appointed by Henry V (Hal).Servant
of the Chief JusticeSir
John Falstaff: Fun-loving companion of
Prince Hal. Falstaff is rejected by Hal when the
latter becomes king.Page
of FalstaffBardolph,
Pistol, Peto: Falstaff's companions.Poins:
Companion of Hal before the latter becomes
king.Robert
Shallow, Silence: Country justices. Silence
is Shallow's cousin.Fang,
Snare: Sheriff's officers.Doll
Tearsheet: Prostitute at the Boar's Head
Tavern in London's Eastcheap section.Mouldy,
Shadow, Wart, Feeble, Bullcalf: Falstaff's
army recruits.Mistress
Quickly: Hostess of the Boar's-Head Tavern.Davy:
Justice Shallow's servant.William
Visor: Friend of Davy. Davy asks Justice
Shallow for favorable treatment of Visor in a
lawsuit.Clement
Perkes: Man opposing William Visor in a
lawsuit.Beadles:
Messengers of a court of law.Grooms:
Men from the royal court who strew flowers on the
road before the passing of the royal train
carrying Hal after his coronation as King Henry V.Dancer:
Speaker of the epilogue.Minor
Characters: Lords, attendants, porter,
drawers (tapsters or bartenders).

Rumor spreads that Hotspur has
killed Prince Hal and that the rebels have
defeated the royalists. However, Henry Percy,
Earl of Northumberland, soon learns the truth
about his son Hotspur and the rebel army: It
was not Hotspur who killed Hal; it was Hal who
killed Hotspur. What is more, it was not the
rebels who defeated the royalists; it was the
royalists who defeated the rebels.
Nevertheless, the rebels are far from ripe for
surrender. They form a coalition that includes
a defector to their cause: Richard Scroop, the
Archbishop of York. He is much disenchanted
with the policies of Henry IV. Meanwhile, fat old
Falstaff lives it up in London. He has his own
page to wait on him—compliments of Hal—and
more than twenty yards of silk with which to
fashion a cape and breeches. His prodigality
soon leaves him with but eight coins in his
purse. Not to worry. The gout in his big toe,
which causes him to limp, will surely qualify
him for a rise in his pension. Before Falstaff leaves for
battle, his landlady, Mistress Quickly, calls
the law down on him for failure to repay a
loan. Even worse, he has failed to make good
on his promise to marry her. When officers
attempt to arrest him, a great ruckus ensues.
In the end, Falstaff not only escapes arrest,
but he also persuades Mistress Quickly to lend
him ten more pounds. Prince Hal happens by,
and he and Falstaff enjoy a bit of merrymaking
until the time comes for them to embark for
war. In the new campaign against the rebels,
Falstaff will be under the command of Prince
John of Lancaster, Hal’s younger brother. The
Earl of Northumberland will not be wielding a
sword in this campaign, for his wife and
daughter-in-law have persuaded him to stand
aside. However, if the rebels gain the upper
hand, Lady Percy advises, then it would be
wise for him to enter the fray. Meanwhile, at the palace
in Westminster, King Henry IV, seriously ill,
frets about the state of his country. Insomnia
seizes him. He says,

O
sleep,
O
gentle
sleep, Nature’s soft nurse, how have I
frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my
eyelids down And steep my senses in
forgetfulness? (3.1.7-10)

In Gaultree forest in Yorkshire,
site of the insurgents’ camp, the archbishop and
other rebel leaders despair at news that
Northumberland will not be fighting at their
side. Then the Earl of Westmoreland, an
ambassador from royalist forces under Prince
John of Lancaster, arrives to parlay with the
rebels, telling them that John is willing to
hear their grievances and grant concessions if
the grievances are just. After the rebels
present their list of complaints, Westmoreland
delivers it to Lancaster. Lancaster then meets with
the rebels and swears by his honor that he will
speedily redress the grievances. Taking the
prince at his word, the rebel leaders order
their armies to disperse. However, as soon as
the armies leave, Prince John goes back on his
word, arrests the leaders, and summarily
executes them. Then he orders the fleeing rebel
troops to be run down. In another part of the
forest, Falstaff somehow has managed to capture
a prisoner. When Falstaff and Lancaster meet,
the prince rebukes the fat knight for always
being absent from the scene of battle and
threatens to send him to the gallows. Falstaff
then proudly displays his prize, the prisoner,
saying he is a “most furious knight and
valourous enemy . . . I came,
I saw, I overcame”1 (4.3.17).After Lancaster leaves,
Falstaff says the cold, unsmiling prince is the
way he is because he has not cultivated the
habit of drinking wine. In Westminster, the
king, now very sick, broods about his son Prince
Hal. Will he ever mature enough to succeed his
father as King of England? Westmoreland then
arrives with excellent news: The rebels have
been defeated; peace reigns. However, the king’s
condition worsens, and he realizes death stands
near to claim him. When Prince Hal arrives to
comfort his father, the king offers this advice
to his son: “Be it thy course to busy giddy
minds with foreign quarrels; that action, hence
borne out, may waste the memory of the former
days” (4.5.221-223).In other words, if England
centers its attention on conflicts with foreign
countries, the people will likewise divert their
attention from making domestic mischief and
focus instead on making international mischief.
The king then is carried to the palace’s
Jerusalem Chamber. There he dies, fulfilling a
prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem. Upon hearing that Hal is now
King Henry V, Falstaff hurriedly returns to his
friend’s side to reap the benefits of having a
monarch for a bosom pal. However, Hal, as king,
becomes a different person. He is sober, solemn,
full of kingly dignity; he means business. Hal
lectures Falstaff on his unprincipled ways, then
banishes him on pain of death, telling him “not
to come near our person by ten mile” (5.5.56).
If Falstaff reforms, Hal says, “We will,
according to your strengths and qualities, give
you advancement” (5.5.60-61). The new king next
convenes a session of parliament to discuss war
with a new enemy, France.

.

Conflicts

The
main conflicts center on (1) Henry IV and his
rebellious enemies, (2) Henry's concern about
his son, and (3) Henry's gnawing guilt about his
accession to the throne over the body of Richard
II.

After
suffering
a
loss at the Battle of Shrewsbury (Henry IVPart I), the rebel forces regroup to
renew their fight against the king. While
considering the threat they pose, the king also
worries whether Young Hal—who
proved himself an outstanding at
Shrewsbury—has the
wherewithal to be a future king.
In addition, the king frets over the state of
his soul. After all, he had acceded to the
throne after one of his supporters killed his
predecessor, Richard II. The king, therefore,
believes he has blood on his hands. He hopes to
make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to redeem
himself. He tells Warwick and Surrey, "And were
these inward wars once out of hand, / We would,
dear lords, unto the Holy
Land" (3.1.113-144).

Tone

The
tone of the play is alternately serious and
lighthearted, with the comic episodes of
Falstaff contrasting with the sober business of
war. However, Hal bends his mind to affairs of
state, becoming deadly serious. At the end of
the play, when he becomes king, he chastens
Falstaff, telling him he must reform his ways.

ClimaxThe climax of a play or
narrative work, such as a short story or a
novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point
at which the conflict begins to resolve itself
for better or worse, or as (2) the final and
most exciting event in a series of events. The
climax in Henry IV Part II occurs,
according to the first definition, when Prince
Hal renounces his old ways once and for all
and banishes Falstaff. According to the second
definition, the climax occurs when
King Henry dies and his son, Prince Hal, accedes
to the throne.

Themes

Maturation

Prince Hal becomes a mature,
reliable, and upright leader while executing
his military and governmental duties. After
his father dies and he becomes King Henry V,
he renounces his former self—the carousing,
fun-loving Hal who mingled with rowdies to
learn the ways of the common folk. To prove
that he is now deadly serious about his kingly
duties, he also renounces Falstaff, saying,

Reply not to
me with a fool-born jest: Presume not that I am the thing I
was; For God doth know, so shall the
world perceive, That I have turn’d away my former
self;. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .I banish thee, on
pain of death, As I have done the rest of my
misleaders, Not to come near our person by
ten mile. (5.5. 46-47 and 54-56)

What's Past
Remains Past

Even the best of men sometimes
have checkered pasts. Like many modern
politicians, Prince Hal has engaged in
reprehensible and censurable conduct, thanks
to his association with Falstaff and his
friends. But he leaves the past behind
him—forever. If he were running for political
office in modern times, he would have
difficulty burying his past; for the media
would surely exhume it and vilify Hal

Troubles at
Home

Domestic violence strikes not
only families but also entire kingdoms. Henry
IV uses his army to fight citizens of his own
country. In modern times, governments have
often done the same—rightly or wrongly—in
Russia, Northern Ireland, Vietnam, and other
countries.

Guilt

Henry IV experiences deep
guilt for the manner in which he came to
power: overthrowing the previous king, Richard
II. Shakespeare says he did not merely
overthrow him; he murdered him. Henry's guilt
consumes him and remains with him until he
draw his last breath. As he near death, he
prays for remission of his sin, saying, "How
I came by the crown, O God, forgive! / And grant
it may with thee in true peace live"
(4.5.226-227).

The Role of Falstaff

Henry
IV Part I made
Falstaff a popular comic character with
audiences. He even became a favorite of Queen
Elizabeth I. Consequently, in Henry IV Part
II, Shakespeare devotes considerable
attention to the fat knight, perhaps more
attention than he should receive in a play that
presents as the central characters a dying king
and his son. However, Falstaff’s shenanigans
play a key role in the play in that they (1)
demonstrate the kind of life Prince Hal has led
as a companion of Falstaff and (2) set up the
stunning scene at the end of the play when Hal,
more mature, renounces his old lifestyle and
Falstaff. This scene is important because it
shows that Hal has the spine to give up his
carefree, irresponsible ways to take on the
heavy burdens of kingship.
As in the first play, Falstaff eats, drinks, and
makes merry. And, of course, there is no end to
his bragging, as in the following passage in
which he hyperbolizes about himself: “I would to
God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as
it is: I were better to be eaten to death
with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with
perpetual motion (1.2.66). Falstaff, a companion
of Prince Hal, even thinks himself young like
the prince, telling the Lord Chief Justice, "You
that are old consider not the capacities of us
that are young; you do measure the heat of our
livers with the bitterness of your galls; and we
that are in the vaward2 of our youth, I must confess, are
wags too (1.2.66).
The Lord Chief Justice, well knowing that
Falstaff is little more than a wheezing bag of
wind, replies, "Have you not a moist eye? a dry
hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a
decreasing leg? an increasing belly? is
not your voice broken? your wind short? your
chin double? your wit single? and every part
about you blasted with antiquity?
(1.2.66). Renowned Shakespeare
critic G.B. Harrison, impressed with
Shakespeare's handling of Falstaff, wrote the
falling appraisal of the character:

The most
notable person in [King Henry IV] is
the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, the supreme
comic character in all drama. In creating
Falstaff, Shakespeare used principally his own
eyes and ears. Falstaff is the gross
incarnation of a type of soldier found in any
army, and there were many such—though on a
lower level of greatness—swarming in London
when the play was first written, spending the
profits of the last campaign in taverns,
brothels, and playhouses, while they intrigued
for a new command in the next season's
campaign.... Many of them were rogues who
cheated the government and their own men on
all occasions.... Though he [Falstaff] can
quote Scripture on occasion, he is a liar, a
drunkard, and a cheat; he robs the poor and
flouts every civic virtue; but on the stage at
least he redeems his vices by his incomparable
wit and his skill escaping from every tight
corner."—G.B. Harrison, ed. Major British
Writers. New York: Harcourt, 1967
(Page 59).

Falstaff: the 'Most
Substantial Comic Character Ever Invented'

English
essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830) wrote that
Falstaff was one of the greatest comic
characters in literature. He said:

If Shakespear's fondness for
the ludicrous sometimes led to faults in his
tragedies (which was not often the case) he
has made us amends by the character of
Falstaff. This is perhaps the most substantial
comic character that ever was invented! Sir
John carries a most portly presence in the
mind's eye; and in him, not to speak it
profanely, "we behold the fulness of the
spirit of wit and humour bodily." We are as
well acquainted with his person as his mind,
and his jokes come upon us with double force
and relish from the quantity of flesh through
which they make their way, as he shakes his
fat sides with laughter, or "lards the lean
earth as he walks along." Other comic
characters seem, if we approach and handle
them, to resolve themselves into air, "into
thin air;" but this is embodied and palpable
to the grossest apprehension: it lies "three
fingers deep upon the ribs," it plays about
the lungs and the diaphragm with all the force
of animal enjoyment. His body is like a good
estate to his mind, from which he receives
rents and revenues of profit and pleasure in
kind, according to its extent, and the
richness of the soil. Wit is often a meagre
substitute for pleasurable sensation; an
effusion of spleen and petty spite at the
comforts of others, from feeling none in
itself. Falstaff's wit is an emanation of a
fine constitution; an exuberance of
good-humour and good-nature; an overflowing of
his love of laughter, and good-fellowship; a
giving vent to his heart's ease and
over-contentment with himself and others. He
would not be in character, if he were not so
fat as he is; for there is the greatest
keeping in the boundless luxury of his
imagination and the pampered self-indulgence
of his physical appetites. He manures and
nourishes his mind with jests, as he does his
body with sack and sugar. He carves out his
jokes, as he would a capon, or a haunch of
venison, where there is cut and come again;
and pours out upon them the oil of gladness.
His tongue drops fatness, and in the chambers
of his brain "it snows of meat and drink." He
keeps up perpetual holiday and open house, and
we live with him in a round of invitations to
a rump and dozen.--Yet we are not to suppose
that he was a mere sensualist. All this is as
much in imagination as in reality. His
sensuality does not engross and stupify his
other faculties, but "ascends me into the
brain, clears away all the dull, crude vapours
that environ it, and makes it full of nimble,
fiery, and delectable shapes." His imagination
keeps up the ball after his senses have done
with it. He seems to have even a greater
enjoyment of the freedom from restraint, of
good cheer, of his ease, of his vanity, in the
ideal exaggerated descriptions which he gives
of them, than in fact. He never fails to
enrich his discourse with allusions to eating
and drinking, but we never see him at table.
He carries his own larder about with him, and
he is himself "a ton of man." His pulling out
the bottle in the field of battle is a joke to
shew his contempt for glory accompanied with
danger, his systematic adherence to his
Epicurean philosophy in the most trying
circumstances. Again, such is his deliberate
exaggeration of his own vices, that it does
not seem quite certain whether the account of
his hostess's bill, found in his pocket, with
such an out-of-the-way charge for capons and
sack with only one halfpenny-worth of bread,
was not put there by himself as a trick to
humour the jest upon his favourite
propensities, and as a conscious caricature of
himself. He is represented as a liar, a
braggart, a coward, a glutton, &c. and yet
we are not offended but delighted with him;
for he is all these as much to amuse others as
to gratify himself. He openly assumes all
these characters to shew the humourous part of
them. The unrestrained indulgence of his own
ease, appetites, and convenience, has neither
malice nor hypocrisy in it. In a word, he is
an actor in himself almost as much as upon the
stage, and we no more object to the character
of Falstaff in a moral point of view than we
should think of bringing an excellent
comedian, who should represent him to the
life, before one of the police offices. We
only consider the number of pleasant lights in
which he puts certain foibles (the more
pleasant as they are opposed to the received
rules and necessary restraints of society) and
do not trouble ourselves about the
consequences resulting from them, for no
mischievous consequences do result; Sir John
is old as well as fat, which gives a
melancholy retrospective tinge to the
character; and by the disparity between his
inclinations and his capacity for enjoyment,
makes it still more ludicrous and fantastical.(Characters of Shakespeare's Plays.
London: C. H. Reynell, 1817)

Personification

Among
the most memorable passages in the play are
those in which King Henry—suffering
from terminal illness, guilt, and anxiety about
domestic strife—uses
personification
to communicate his concerns. Following are two
examples of such passages. In the first, sleep
is personified; in the second, fortune.

How many thousand of my poorest
subjects Are
at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle
sleep! Nature’s
soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That
thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And
steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why
rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky
cribs,3Upon
uneasy pallets4 stretching thee, And
hush’d with buzzing night-flies to thy
slumber, Than
in the perfum’d chambers of the great, Under
the canopies of costly state,5And
lull’d with sound of sweetest melody?O
thou dull god!6 why liest thou with the vile7In
loathsome beds, and leav’st the kingly
couch A watch-case or a common ’larum
bell?8Wilt
thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up9 the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brainsIn cradle of the rude imperious
surge,10And
in the visitation of the winds, Who
take the ruffian billows by the top,Curling
their monstrous heads, and hanging them With
deaf’ning clamour in the slippery clouds, That,
with the hurly,11 death itself awakes? Canst
thou, O partial sleep! give thy reposeTo
the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude, And
in the calmest and most stillest night, With
all appliances and means to boot, Deny
it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy
lies the head that wears a crown. (3.1.6-32)

And
wherefore should these good news make me
sick? Will
Fortune never come with both hands full But
write her fair words still in foulest
letters? She
either gives a stomach and no food; Such
are the poor, in health; or else a feast And
takes away the stomach; such are the
rich, That
have abundance and enjoy it not. I
should rejoice now at this happy news, And
now my sight fails, and my brain is
giddy. O
me! come near me, now I am much ill.
(4.4.110-118)

Other Figures
of Speech

Following
are examples of other figures of speech in the
play.

Alliteration:
Repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning
of syllables

With that he
gave his
able horse
the head
(1.1.53)I’ll
tickle your
catastrophe. (2.1.25)Rate, rebuke, and roughly send to
prison (5.2.76)I
did not think Master
Silence had been a man
of this mettle.
(5.3.14)

Anaphora:
Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the
beginning of groups of words

O! such a day, So fought, so follow’d, and
so fairly
won, Came
not till now to dignify the times
(1.1.-28-30)

Even
such a man, so
faint, so
spiritless, So dull, so dead in
look, so
woe-begone, Drew Priam’s12 curtain in the dead of night.
(1.1.85-87)

Apostrophe:
Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or
absent; addressing an absent entity or person;
addressing a deceased person

O
sleep!
O
gentle
sleep! Nature’s
soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That
thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And
steep my senses in forgetfulness? (3.1.7-10)The
king addresses sleep as if it were a person.

Metaphor:
Comparison of unlike things without using like,
as, or than

I can get no remedy against this
consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers
and lingers it out, but the disease is
incurable. (1.2.73)Comparison
of impoverishment to a disease (consumption)

His coffers sound With
hollow poverty and emptiness. (1.3.77-78)Comparison
of poverty to the sound made by empty
strongboxes (coffers)

Thou
globe of sinful continents, what a life dost
thou lead! (2.4.127)Hal
compares Falstaff to world of sin.

You
are too shallow, Hastings, much too
shallow, To
sound the bottom of the after-times.
(4.2.54-55)Comparison
of Hastings to a sounding line used to
measure the depth of a body of waterComparison
of after-times (the future) to a measurable
thing, such as body of water

Paradox:
Contradiction containing a measure of truth

In poison there is physic
[healing]. (1.1.153)

Simile:
Comparison of unlike things using like, as,
or than

The times are wild; contention,
like a horse Full
of high feeding, madly hath broke loose And
bears down all before him. (1.1.15-17) Comparison
of contention to a horse

This
man’s
brow,
like to a title-leaf, Foretells
the nature of a tragic volume (1.1.74-75)Comparison
of the man's brow to the title page of a
book

You
are both, in good troth, as rheumatic as two
dry toasts. (2.4.24)Mistress
Quickly
compares the demeanor of Falstaff and Doll
Tearsheet to dry toast.

His
wit is as thick as Tewksbury mustard.
(2.4.108)Falstaff
insultingly
compares Poins' with to thick mustard.

Quoit
him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat
shilling. (2.4.79)Falstaff
tells Bardolph to throw Pistol down the
stairs, as if Pistol were a coin to be
tossed like a quoit.

Our
peace will, like a broken limb united, Grow
stronger for the breaking. (4.1.232-233) Comparison
of peace to a broken limb

FALSTAFF
What!
is
the old king dead? PISTOL
As
nail in door: the things I speak are just.Pistol
says Henry IV is as dead as a doornail.

Epigrams

In
the dialogue of Henry IV Part II and
other Shakespeare plays, characters sometimes
speak wise or witty sayings, or epigrams. Among
the more memorable sayings in Henry IV Part
II are the following:

Uneasy lies the head that wears the
crown. (3.1.32)This
eight-word line, spoken by the king, is one of
the most pithy observations in all of
literature about the burdens of leadership.

How
quickly nature falls into revolt When
gold becomes her object! (4.5.71-72)King
Henry, dying, speaks these lines after
Prince Hal sees his father sleeping and,
believing him dead, removes his crown and
places it on his own head.

Past
and to come seems best; things present worst.
(1.3.113)Every
human likes to reminisce about the good old
days while also entertaining the notion that
“the best is yet to come.” The here and now,
however, always seems dull and wearisome.
Through the Archbishop of York, Shakespeare
captures this universal truth in nine
words.

Is
it not strange that desire should so many
years outlive performance? (2.4.114)Poins
is poking fun at old Falstaff, but he is
really speaking about everyone who discovers
in old age that his body can no longer do
what his mind wishes.

Notes

1....I came, I saw, I
overcame: These words parody the Latin
words of Julius Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici
(VAY ne, VE de, VE chee), meaning I
came, I saw, I conquered. Caesar wrote the
words in a message to the Roman Senate after he
won a victory in the Battle of Zela (in
present-day northern Turkey) in 47 BC.2....Vaward:
Vanguard.3....smoky cribs:
Small room heated with a smoking fire.4....pallets:
Straw-filled mattress placed on the floor.5....costly state:
Luxurious furnishings; luxurious bed.6....dull god:
Sleep; the god of sleep.7....vile:
Commoners; peasants.8....watch-case . . .
bell: Sentry post; place where a guard
keeps watch to sound an alarm (bell) against
danger.9....Seal up:
Close.10..rock . . . surge:
Rock him to sleep with the motions of the sea.11..hurly:
Hurly-burly; turmoil.12..Priam: In Greek
mythology, Priam was the king of Troy.9

Study Questions and Essay Topics

King
Henry observes, “Uneasy lies the head that
wears the crown” (3.1.32). He means that those
who take on the responsibilities of leadership
also take on the worries that go with them.
Identify several world leaders today who may
be uneasy because they “wear the crown.”

Prince
Hal thinks his father is dead when in reality
the king is only sleeping. Hal removes the
king’s crown and places it on his own head.
What motivates Hal to do this? Is he overly
ambitious? Is he simply trying to demonstrate,
after leading the life of a playboy, that he
is now mature enough to assume the awesome
responsibility of kingship? Explain your
answer.

Has
the attitude toward war as a glorious
adventure changed since the days of King Henry
IV?

Do
you believe Prince Hal was right, at the end
of the play, to scold Falstaff?

Who
is the most admirable character in the play?
Who is the least admirable?

Write
an essay comparing and contrasting the Prince
Hal of Henry IV Part I with the Prince
Hal of Henry IV Part II.